"Indeed I didn't," said Nancy, "and I guess the others will be
surprised. You haven't told them yet, have you?"

"I only knew it this morning myself, but I'm eager to tell them," said
Dorothy.

"Here's Mollie Merton and Flossie Barnet now," cried Nancy, and,
turning, Dorothy saw the two playmates running up the driveway.
"Mollie was over at my house," said Flossie, "and we saw you and Nancy
just as you ran around the house, and we thought we'd come over."

"We were wild to know if our private school is _truly_ to commence next
week. Mamma said it would if enough pupils were ready to join it," said
Mollie, "and we knew Katie Dean's cousin was a new one, and won't it be
funny to have one boy in the class?"

"Oh, but he is just a _little_ boy," said Nancy.

"And he must begin to go to school this year, and he says he likes girls
ever so much better than boys, so he asked if he might go to our
school," Dorothy said.

"He _always_ says he likes girls best," said Flossie; "isn't he a queer
little fellow?" "I don't know," Mollie said, so drolly that they all
laughed.

"And there is a new pupil, who has just come here to live, and she is
_very_ nice, Jeanette Earl says," and as she spoke Dorothy looked up at
her friends, a soft pleading in her blue eyes.